{"title":"James Heather","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"aheddnl019","title":"Stories From Far Away On Piano","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\"\u003eContemporary pianist James Heather presents his debut album - 'Stories From Far Away On Piano', via Ahead Of Our Time - Ninja Tune founders Coldcut’s first label. This follows the successful release of the album digitally in August 2017, reaching No.2 in the classical charts on iTunes and nearly 20 million plays on Spotify. Since the release, Heather has been playing live shows ranging from the Greenpeace stage at Glastonbury to the National Concert Hall in Dublin. He was also handpicked by Laura Marling to support at her Brit Awards\/War Child gig, whilst other supports have included Jóhann Jóhannsson and Lubomyr Melnyk (Erased Tapes).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the surface ‘Stories From Far Away On Piano”s solo minimal piano pieces have a simple, innate beauty, but there’s also a stark intensity simmering within, as the emotional landscape shifts from harrowing, sad, optimistic, to fascinating. Heather has spent many years honing composition before stepping out and making his fresh take on solo piano public. He takes influence from electronic music in structure, ambience and melody, whilst also utilising a classical and jazz grounding. The album’s concept meanwhile centres on Heather’s interpretations of real world stories he read in the news, while composing. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIsis jihadists hijacking the Facebook account of an executed female activist in Syria, the British Empire’s imprisonment of Boers in South African concentration camps and the undiscovered remains of a disappeared Malaysia Airlines jet in the Indian Ocean, were sources of inspiration translated into abstract musical forms. Other catalysts include the terror suspect who had a change of heart at the last minute on taking part in the Paris attacks, and the Los Angeles man freed after 16 years in prison, having been wrongly identified by having the same teardrop tattoo as the offender. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe black and white album art by Suki features layers of Indian ink bled into newspaper print, repeatedly scanned and treated to interpret the recirculation of information. It also plots the nine latitude and longitude locations where each story came from, forming an abstract world - reinterpreting place into something less literal and more expressive. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe only piece breaking from the world news-based theme is ‘Pathos’, where Peckham in London is given as the location and the area where the album was recorded. The piece, as Heather explains, encapsulates an aim of the album. \"Pathos is an appeal to emotion, a way of bringing the listener in, to evoke an empathetic response,” he says, adding “this is my interpretation of stories I discovered. The stories themselves are not the focus, but the piano assimilation is, as the album is about viewpoint, opinion and perspective.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerspective is something Heather has in abundance; he nearly died in a traumatic road traffic accident in 2008, leaving him in a coma in intensive care and then off work for an textended time. One permanent injury was his finger, which became skewed in the crash. He was unsure if he’d ever be able to play to the same standard again. “When I eventually started to recover I began taking my musical sketches more seriously. I found solitude channeling my feelings into compositions.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Heather is one of the new school set of ‘post classical’ artists flourishing in the wake of the long, steady but recently accelerated success of figureheads like Max Richter and Nils Frahm, and the wider public’s overdue but now burgeoning relationship with this varied genre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninjatune","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44932793630879,"sku":"AHED019","price":29.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":44932793663647,"sku":"AHEDCD019","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8563\/5999\/products\/stories-from-far-away-on-piano-main.jpg?v=1736247281"},{"product_id":"aheddnl034","title":"Invisible Forces","description":"\u003cp\u003eContemporary pianist and composer James Heather announces his second album ‘Invisible Forces’ out on the 22nd April via Ahead of Our Time, Ninja Tune founders Coldcut’s first record label. Influenced by the sensibility of electronic, ambient, orchestral and post-rock music but channelled through solo piano and his classical and jazz grounding, the album follows the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Modulations: EP2’, released in 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeather’s new album is about becoming aware of invisible forces around us to help deepen understanding of self and our connection to the world, from tuning into the natural world and getting lost in its patterns and energies to gaining more knowledge around ancestral lines such as the concept of epigenetics. It’s about looking that bit deeper into things, into areas that are not instantly visible but are all around us to achieve this. “Composing these songs gave me an anchor to feel more present in life after some troubling times and sent me on a journey to rediscover a kind of wonderment with the world. I hope the Invisible Forces universe will bring warmth to other people too.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecorded, mixed and produced by Heather in his new home studio on a refurbished Bosendorfer 200 grand piano utilising various microphone techniques, ‘Invisible Forces’ is a love story to the instrument that was his first love. A step forward compositionally from his 2017 debut album ‘Stories From Far Away On Piano’, the songs are grander, deeper and broader in emotional range and are developed through a series of improvisation techniques rarely seen in the often notated world of classical music. He describes his music as “pulse music” with each track performed in a single take and with their roots in this live improvisation, often honed on the road where Heather moves between tender to more propulsive, trance-inducing dynamics. He memorised each movement, then subtly adapted, adding more complexities and compositional dexterity over time before committing to the final take. His approach to the new compositions, finds him playing freely, with no metronome or official notation to recall or dictate the piece but instead using just his muscle memory, feel and instinct to decide where each track will go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA deeply personal and autobiographical album, the first four tracks on ‘Invisible Forces’ come from inside, about life dreams that end up becoming devastatingly flawed (or not) as in ‘Meant to Be’, to complications around the sharing of grief and moving on in ‘No Time Limit to Grief’. Elsewhere, the loss of the “sixth” sense of balance in Heather’s father due to a brain tumour is addressed in ‘Balance,’ while Heather acknowledges trusting in his inner being to overcome life’s difficulties and look out once again with positivity in ‘In Your Spirit’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeather’s profound sense of awe at the big wide world outside of the self is considered in ‘Ultraviolet’ – the realisation that everything is connected in the universe, often in unseen ways, like a magic that surrounds us while ‘Forgotten Cities’, is a dreamlike interest in lost civilisations who built at one with nature and the stars above to cities today affected by war, nostalgic for peaceful times, hoping their city won’t be forgotten. ‘Invisible Forces’, the core of the album, absorbs all the albums messages, and connects different stages of Heather’s own compositional history from childhood to now. “I feel like one of the messages in my music is an activism for peace and equality for all, it is political but just done in a minimalist way. It’s about learning to love ourselves but also to love others even more.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the closing stages of ‘Invisible Forces’, Heather questions the journey towards the end of a life, a feeling transcending perhaps even joy. A feeling of connecting back to ancestors long since gone and the realisation they might be effecting him now in subliminal ways as in ‘Ancestral Future Now’, to ‘Beginnings,’ which looks at the evolvement of the natural world around us. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmpathy and compassion are two key themes underpinning the album, in particular with the most personal song in ‘Hidden Angel’, a letter of forgiveness to a missing lorry driver who put Heather in a coma in 2008 whilst he was cycling and may not know that he miraculously survived the episode. A topic which Heather has never addressed before in song, he was given just a 5% chance of survival and he endured both the mental and physical challenge of adjusting back into life, changing him fundamentally as a person through many highs and lows as he battled back to full fitness, an experience that he now looks at as a positive. ‘I am lucky that at last my life is now filled with a joy I could never have dreamed of before, dealing with the aftermath of such trauma can take time. The driver couldn’t be located some years later and I always wanted to let him know I survived, in case he didn’t know, and to tell him I’m ok and that I hold no anger. The whole experience has given me an increased empathy to people that may be going through something heavy and to face mortality head on at such a young age, whilst a shock, has deepened my understanding of life.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album concludes with ‘Immortal Beloved’, a song about the treasuring of love, and a reference to the famous letter Beethoven, an early influence on Heather, wrote and never sent to someone unnamed. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album artwork is by long-time collaborator Suki and is a representation of the many invisible layers of our inner and outer worlds. Inspired by the structure of earth, each layer or journey is connected to the next through implied space and time transcending to unknown depths. ‘Invisible Forces’ is as much about emotional growth as it is physical awareness. The album art interprets this tension through a series of contrary emotions where wonderment and solitude, awe and isolation, contemplation and silence can be found in equal measure. Informed by real world invisible forces, the art is designed using computational techniques. Procedural materials and the movement of light create hyperreal terrains that feel both familiar and unfamiliar.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninjatune","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":44932793696415,"sku":"AHED034","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":44932793729183,"sku":"AHEDCD034","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8563\/5999\/products\/invisible-forces-main.jpg?v=1736247279"},{"product_id":"ahedbk034","title":"Selected Piano Works (Sheet Music Book)","description":"\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eUpdate:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e Digital versions of individual tracks can now also be purchased as PDFs via Ninja Tune - \u003c\/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/ninjatune.net\/release\/james-heather\/selected-piano-works-sheet-music-book\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ehttps:\/\/ninjatune.net\/release\/james-heather\/selected-piano-works-sheet-music-book\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the first time, “Selected Piano Works” is the long-awaited selection of 25 solo piano transcriptions from ‘Pulse Music’ pianist James Heather. Presented in an incredible 144-page printed folio designed by long-time collaborator SUKI.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe music is taken from all his albums and EPs released 2017–2022, including most-requested pieces ‘Ultraviolet’, ‘Empire Sounds’, ‘Biomes’, ‘Passing Soul’, ‘Last Minute Change Of Heart’, ‘Oizys’ and ‘Beginnings’, with difficulty ranging from entry level to more experimental and advanced. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis printed collection also includes a special written introduction and insightful performance notes from Heather. The exclusive art by SUKI features 88 pulses on the cover representing the piano keys. Each image inside the book is a visualisation of a piece in the form of a spectrogram. Track data is plotted in a 3D timeline to visualise tiny pulses overlapping and merging, representing Heather’s unique style of playing. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeather calls his music “Pulse Music”, as our own internal pulses are not rigid — they adapt to the world around us. The music is often meditative, but sometimes it’s faster, fighting for and ultimately celebrating life. Because of this, the tempos and dynamics can be fluid. Heather notes: “This book’s been a long time coming. I can’t read music brilliantly. I stopped at 15, dedicating myself to composition built with muscle memory after a foundation learning Beethoven, Satie and Joplin scores. I’d compose by modulating between keys, feeling like an explorer sailing seas in search of new lands, only to return one day to the start. I respect people who play music by others and the craft of transcription. This respect is why this book took years to make — I had to extract this music out of my head, long after recording. Working with specialists such as Sam Lung and Nate Thatcher, there was back and forth to mould the pieces into a form that was never originally intended to be written down. I’ve made the directions as approachable as possible to play, a balance between being simple to follow and true to the essence of the original recording.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTranscribed Works\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eAnd She Came Home\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBalance\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBeginnings\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBiomes\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBlueprint\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eThe Conscience Loop\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eEmpire Sounds\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eForgotten Cities\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eGlimmer\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eHappy Tears\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eHidden Angel\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eImmortal Beloved\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eIn Your Spirit\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eInvisible Forces\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eKraken\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eLast Minute Change of Heart\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eMeant To Be\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eMetal Machina\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eMHope\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eNo Time Limit To Grief\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eOizys\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePassing Soul\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eRuqia\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eUltraviolet\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eCategory: Score Book\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eMusic: James Heather\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eTranscription: Nate Thatcher and Sam Lung\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eEditing, engraving and project management: Sam Lung at Pretty Decent Music\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eDesign Direction: SUKI\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eProduction Design: Ruth Keating\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eRecordings released by Ahead Of Our Time \/ Ninja Tune\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eCover: Colorplan Ebony 270GSM with white foil blocking\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePrinted on: Munken Polar White Smooth 130GSM\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eFirst Edition Print Run: 350\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eSize 305x229mm\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003ePages: 144 (inc 23 with images)\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eMusic Pieces: 25 (Intermediate Solo PIano)\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eBinding: OTA Thread-sewn paperback\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eLanguage: English \u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted and bound in the UK by Halstan Ltd\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninja Tune","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":45555904479391,"sku":"AHEDBK034","price":39.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8563\/5999\/files\/selected-piano-works-score-book-main.jpg?v=1736246314"}],"url":"https:\/\/merch.ninjatune.net\/collections\/james-heather.oembed","provider":"Ninja Tune","version":"1.0","type":"link"}